Enthralled (NaLu)
by KeysxFlames
Summary: Lucy Heartfilia is - to simply put it – serious and entirely devoted to her work. Her energy is only used for working. Insert Natsu Dragneel, a fiery man with an unexplained head of pink hair. When the two meet, Natsu is immediately interested in Lucy, while she wants nothing to do with him. As the two become close, friendship, and even something more may start to arise. -NALU-


_**A/N: Hello! I finally got Word back after not having it for so long. It's like a dream.~**_

 _ **xxx**_

 _Lucy Heartfilia is - to simply put it – serious and entirely devoted to her work. Her energy is only used for working and… well, that's about it. Insert Natsu Dragneel, a fiery man with an unexplained head of pink hair. When the two meet, Natsu is immediately interested in Lucy, while she wants nothing to do with him. As the two become close, friendship, and even something more, may start to arise._

Lucy fixed the glasses on the ridge of her nose, sliding them up using her index finger. She ignored her cramped rump, a side effect of sitting in her chair so long. Still, she did not lose focus on her work, nor had she for the past 5 hours. Someone may be surprised that a girl could sit for so long with no breaks, but anything was possible when it came to 24-year-old Lucy Heartfilia.

Speaking of which, her focus was only lost for a second when her phone vibrated next to her. She sighed as she shifted her eyes slightly, her hands hovering over the keyboard of her laptop, her sentence paused. She immediately recognized the contact name "Levy," going to answer quickly. She read her friend's message, a small smile shaping onto her face. The blonde's fingers immediately got to answering her friend.

 _(6:23) Levy: Hello!_

 _(6:40) Levy: Lucy~_

 _(7:51) Levy: LUCY HEARTFILIA YOU BETTER ANSWER ME._

Lucy blinked at the screen. She hadn't even realized that her short friend had texted her. She slid back her kempt blonde hair and pressed send once she was done typing in a response.

 _Lucy: Sorry. I got distracted with work._

She set her phone down, ready to being typing again when her phone buzzed again. No surprise there; Levy was quick to reply.

 _Levy: ugh, you stupid girl!_

 _Levy: How did I already know that was the problem? ;;_

 _Levy: I was GONNA ask if you wanted to do something we Erza and I tmrrw? :3_

 _Lucy: I need to finish writing though…_

 _Levy: Bullshit! Your deadline is in 2 weeks! You told me you were almost done, right? You can take a small break!_

 _Levy: Please!~_

Lucy sighed. Thinking on it now, her hours to sleep were shortening, and she had even started skipping meals just to get extra time in to write. It wasn't easy being a famous author, but was that worth her health?

Well, Lucy wouldn't have used the word "famous" there. She was a writer that went under the penname "Keys." Ever since she had discovered how to pick up a pencil, she was writing. When she was young, the gears in her brain were constantly moving, shifting, thinking of any creative storyline she could build. Back then, she would write day and night simply because she _wanted_ to. It wasn't exactly the same now. Don't get her wrong, Lucy still adored what she did, but it seemed like she was throwing herself into it now. She didn't like to share the reason why.

 _Lucy: I'll see what I can do._

She could picture Levy smiling in her mind right now. When saying it to Levy, that phrase most of the time meant yes. It was hard to say not to your friend that you've known since the fifth grade. The two girls had met when they were assigned together in a project for school. Each of them hadn't had many friends, so they were really the leftovers, as Levy called it. They ended up talking to one another and a beautiful friendship bloomed. Lucy wouldn't change it for anything.

 _Levy: Awww yis! I'll let you go FOR NOW. Can you do 2?_

Lucy checked off her schedule in her head, nodding to herself.

 _Lucy: Yep! Now leave me alone! The good part is coming. ~_

 _Levy: Be ready. I'm gonna come over and make sure you look super cute!_

Ah, Lucy's favorite part in every romance novel she's ever written. The kiss scene. It was just so fun to write, the feeling of being whimsical and having your knees buckles and chest ache. Back in high school, when she was a naïve young girl, she always wished that she could have that feeling. She dreamt of a knight in shining armor on a white steed to whisk her away into a world of carefreeness and bliss. Of course, that would be impossible. She now knew that it was a completely unrealistic dream.

Still, she wondered: Would anyone make her feel like that someday?

Patting her hair down, Lucy sighed at the mirror. It seemed like she had been sighing a lot these days. Was there any air left in her? Well, obviously, there was, but sometimes it didn't feel like it. She felt lightheaded at times, and there would be a stumble to her step when she walked. She shrugged off the behavior, however. She was simply hungry, or she needed more sleep.

"You look great!" Levy commented, swooping up behind her friend. Her usual attire of jeans and a t-shirt was now replaced with capris and a red tank-top. Lucy had commented, explaining that too much skin was being shown, but Levy had disregarded her friend completely.

"If I had known this was some attempt to make me look like a hooker, I would've said no," Lucy complained, slouching back in her chair. Levy gasped and slapped her friends arm lightly.

"Lu, that is so rude! Lots of people wear tank-tops when it's hot outside! It's normal! Besides, it compliments your delicious figure. Honestly, most girls would kill to have boobs the size of yours!" Lucy blushed, rolling her eyes. Levy was cupping the little chest she had on herself.

"You're cute, Levy. Is that not what _Gajeel_ said?" Lucy asked, making her pitch go higher at the sound of her best friend's boyfriend. The girl was constantly complaining about him and how he never took her on dates anymore. At the same time, she would admire how sexy (not the word Lucy would use) his frame was.

"Shut up! You're just jealous because you're single!"

It was true, Lucy was single, but that didn't really bother her. A significant other was just a nuisance in her eyes. You were expected to buy them things and spend all your time with them. That energy could be used to better improve yourself, make you worth something. That was what she had been told, at least.

Lucy hated to admit it, but she hated growing up with her father. He was obsessed with his work, and couldn't make time for his own daughter. Jude Heartfilia was a man that only strived to be at the top of the business food chain. He craved money and put it before his own family. Lucy vaguely remembered a time when she went to show her father one of her stories, something she had made for him and worked on for 3 months. He slapped her and ordered her out of the room.

Furthermore, the blonde wasn't very fond of the mansion she grew up in. It used to be happy until the passing of her mother, Layla Heartfilia.

Lucy, however, faked a playful smile and said, "Yes, and I intend to keep it that way."

Her friend rolled her eyes and placed her hands on her hips. Lucy slipped on some red shoes to match. If she was going to look like this, she might as well have the best she can with it. Her hair was down, cascading all the way down to her hips. She made a mental note that she might have to cut it. Her friends always told her how pretty she looked with it down, but she thought it made her look silly.

"Ugh. Come on, we should go. It's 1:45 and we both know how much we don't want to deal with an angry Erza."

"You're right. She would never intentionally hurt us though, right?" Lucy said with a somewhat nervous expression. Picturing the scarlet-haired woman when angry was enough to send a jolt down Lucy's spine. Levy was having a similar reaction next to her blonde friend. The girl slipped past her, her head just brushing Lucy's collarbone. She called for Lucy to hurry up, snapping her out of her daze. She lurched towards her small friend, and they ran out the door.

Taking the bus was pretty annoying, but they had to take it to get there in time. Lucy's apartment was a ways from where their destination was. Or was it?

"Eh, Levy," Lucy spoke, "where are we going anyways? You never even told me! You know I don't like surprises." Sigh. "Well, this was only my own fault. I should have asked first."

"Quit rambling, Lu. I didn't tell you because I wanted it to be a surprise." Did this girl not hear what her friend had just said? "You never get out anymore. Besides, you might've had the thought to ask if you hadn't been uptight about your job," she sang with a smirk. Lucy shook her head, steadying her feet as a bump hit the bus. She refused to grab onto the pole the bus had; do you even know how many germs were on that thing? Being sick was a nuisance.

"That's my occupation, Levy. My income, my life."

"Lu, you sound a lot like-" The bus suddenly gave a hard lurch. Levy grasped tighter onto the pole as Lucy was thrown to her left. She heard her friend gasp as she felt herself run into something hard and warm. She and the person gave a grunt as she heard the bus driver apologize about a hard stop. Lucy twisted her foot, having stepped on it the wrong way when she was thrown. It quickly occurred to her that there was a _person_ she was hanging onto, and quickly pushed off.

"I'm so sorry!" Lucy yelped, a blush spreading on her cheeks. How long had it been since she was embarrassed? "I wasn't paying enough attention!" She looked up at the person, only for her blush to deepen. Lucy may have no interest in finding a boyfriend, but she could tell that this man was extremely handsome. He had salmon hair -which usually didn't look good on boys, but the blonde found that it suited him- and a thick white scarf around his neck. It looked rough, almost as if it had scales on it, but Lucy knew that was completely unrealistic. His eyes were an emerald green, and reminded her of a dragon she had read in a story once. He had a kind smile, framing his unusually sharp teeth.

Everything about him was strange, but not bad.

"Don't worry about it!" he assured, a deep voice chiming from his mouth. Even his voice was handsome! Lucy realized she must look awful after such a bump. She went to pat her hair. "It wasn't anyone's fault."

She backed away a bit, now realizing that everyone was looking at them. The man must have noticed too, since he raised an eyebrow and said, "Is something interesting to you people?" That got them to carry on with their conversations. Her hand was now clutching the rod, completely disregarding the germs this time. Her brown eyes shifted to the ground, feeling her legs shake. She usually never spoke to strangers. Not unless it was work-related or she was at the check-out at the grocery store.

"I'm sorry that happened. I'll go now," she said quietly, marching back to Levy. He gave a shrug, proceeding to look out the window. Lucy felt her face flaming as she hung as tight as she could onto the pole Levy was. Her friend laughed for a while, not able to keep a straight face.

Once she stopped, she said, "Wow, Lu! You haven't blushed so much since that one crush you had in high school. Even then, you didn't look _that_ bad."

"Rude," Lucy muttered, turning away.

"Is someone in love?' Levy sang, clapping her hands together.

"Not a chance!" Lucy denied, her eyebrows furrowing.

"He was like your knight in shining armor!"

As her friend was talking about "love at first sight" and babies, the blonde stole a glance at the man who was now focused on his phone.

Knight in shining armor, huh? No, he reminded her much more of a dragon.

An incredibly handsome one at that.


End file.
